"The message must go out from this court in the strongest possible terms that the perverted activity of people like you who seize eggs to satisfy their own lust will not be tolerated.

"People like you threaten the fragile heritage of wildlife on this island, not now but for future generations, by preying not just on birds, but very rare birds."

Pearson, who was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs and forfeit the haul, admitted stealing five chough eggs and three peregrine falcon eggs from Pen y Parc in Anglesey in April 2005.

He also admitted stealing four barn owl eggs from a site near Saltfleet, Lincolnshire, that same month. He pleaded guilty to possessing 653 Schedule One eggs - the rarest and most protected under the 1981 Act - and possessing a further 6,477.

Some 595 of the eggs hoarded by Pearson, from Cleethorpes, could not be identified by experts.

David Outterside, prosecuting, told the court: "Mr Pearson has in effect admitted to being a professional birds' egg thief who operated at the highest end of one of Britain's most destructive natural pastimes."

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Rare: Pearson was caught with osprey eggs. There are only two breeding sites in England

Pearson's home was raided by police and RSPB investigators in November 2006 as part of Operation Easter, a nationwide campaign to crack down on so-called collectors.

Pearson led them to an upstairs bedroom where they discovered the vast collection. Richard Butters, defending, said: "He was simply a working man with an overwhelming fascination for eggs. He said it was a kind of habit that simply got out of control."

Outside court Mark Thomas, head of investigations for the RSPB, said he hoped the jail term would act as a deterrent.

"Together with the police, we have dealt with many egg-collecting cases over the years but the scale of the offending in this case was horrifying," he said. "His actions show a selfish disregard for nature, denying the rest of us the joy of seeing these wonderful creatures in the wild."

Around 100 collectors are thought to be still active in the UK.

Eleven have been jailed since the tougher Countryside and Rights of Way Act was introduced in 2000.